Kliff Kingsbury sends a strong message about Jayden Daniels taking big-shot plays downfield as he goes into his second season

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels completely changed the expectations for rookies entering the league after his historic season, and his own expectations are even higher this year as well. He took the league by storm, and won the Rookie of the Year honors after taking the Commanders to the NFC Championship game.

Daniels was still a rookie, though, and his ability to speak out on how he feels about certain plays has opened up a ton as he goes into his second season. The growth of Daniels will also increase Commanders' offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury's trust to let him rip the big plays even more than he did last season.

Trust leads to more opportunities

When you're a rookie, especially playing quarterback, you come in ready to learn and do what the coaches are telling you. A year of leading on the field and executing the plays at a high level rewards you with more trust and opportunities to speak up about what you want to do based on what you're seeing on the field. Kingsbury spoke about how the players' opinions to take big shots in games override anything he wants because of that trust.

"Yeah, a lot of it is, I would say, player-based," Kingsbury said. "If you're getting the information from them, that to me is always the trump card if it's going to work or not. Even if you don't think it's a
good idea, if they believe in it, they usually make it work. I think I get a lot of my information
from those guys, the quarterbacks, receivers, saying, ‘Hey, they're playing like this. I think we can hit this, and kind of take it from there."

"We have a great offensive coaching staff as well that has a lot of information," Kingsbury added. "A lot of guys who have been former play callers, which really helps me at the same time. We're getting lots of information throughout the game that helps me in determining when to take those [big] shots and kind of what is the best shot to take.”